Everyone needs to know - Getting started with accessibility

Things you can do to learn about accessibility.

Book an accessibility training session

The Government Digital Service (GDS) runs introductions to accessibility for people who work in public sector services.

Find a cross-government training event.

Learn on your own

You can learn a lot through reading blogs and watching videos. There are some good resources online.

Online resources

• Accessibility and me (GOV.UK blogs) – a series of interviews with people with access needs
• Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility (GOV.UK blog) with GOV.UK posters about designing inclusive services
• Accessibility in government blog (GOV.UK)
• Understanding disabilities and impairments: user profiles (GOV.UK) – a set of profiles highlighting common barriers users face when accessing digital services. Please share any accessibility user profiles for NHS services on our public Slack channel.
• Web accessibility perspectives (W3C) – a series of videos about how accessible design can help people with disabilities

Book a session in an accessibility lab

An accessibility lab will give you hands-on experience of some of the technologies that people use with online services. Some labs also have goggles that simulate visual impairments and headphones to simulate hearing loss.

NHS England has its own accessibility lab. NHS England staff can find information on the intranet about how to book it.

Try out assistive technologies

Get some understanding of how different technologies work. Use a screenreader, for example, and check how your web pages or other websites perform.

If you have a Mac, try out VoiceOver, or download NVDA for Windows.

If you're not confident about doing this, book a session in an accessibility lab first.

Talk to other people with an interest in accessibility

Join the GOV.UK accessibility community or talk to NHS colleagues on our public Slack workspace to get advice and support, stay up to date and share examples.

Help us improve this guidance

Share insights or feedback and take part in the discussion. We use GitHub as a collaboration space. All the information on it is open to the public.

Read more about how to feedback or share insights.

If you have any questions, get in touch with the service manual team.

Updated: January 2024